The Jedi Awakening
by skca54
Summary: Seventeen years have passed since the end of the Clone Wars. The Galactic Empire continues to tighten its grip on planets across the galaxy. There is a growing rebel sentiment in the galaxy. One of those with rebellious intent, is Mindy, a thirteen-year-old Human – she is alone and waging her own personal war as a bounty-hunter under the pseudonym: Hit-Girl. A Kick-Ass Crossover.
1. The Force

**Author's Note:** _This will my twenty-fourth (published) story and my third cross-over. As I have mentioned before, I was inspired to write these stories by the many amazing Authors on Fan Fiction who write Kick-Ass Stories._

 _I will be pushing it with this story. It is in a universe that is new to me, but I thought I would give it a go, if for nothing more than a bit of fun! Please go easy with the criticism as this story may start, badly!_

 **Synopsis:**

 _A long time ago in a galaxy far,  
far away..._

 _STAR  
WARS_

 _The Jedi Awakening_

 _Seventeen years have passed  
since the end of the Clone Wars._

 _The galaxy is in chaos as the  
Galactic Empire continues to  
tighten its grip on planets across  
the galaxy._

 _There is a growing rebel  
sentiment within those affected  
by the Empire's seemingly  
unstoppable spread._

 _One of those with rebellious  
intent, is Mindy, a thirteen-year-  
old Human – she is alone and  
waging her own personal war on  
the Empire as a bounty-hunter  
under the pseudonym: Hit-Girl._

 _Her life takes a dramatic turn  
when she finds something  
calling her to the capital planet  
of the galaxy, Coruscant._

* * *

 ** _2 BBY_**

 ** _Coruscant_**

As ever, the city-covered planet was heaving with activity, as it always did, 24 hours a day, 5 days a week.

I was still trying to figure out why I was even on the planet. I would usually never venture this far in from the Outer Rim – the Core Worlds were havens for the Galactic Empire and as a rule, I avoided _all_ Imperial entanglements. It had been a dream which had convinced me to bring my ship and myself into the centre of Empire controlled territory. I had to be severely brain-damaged to have felt the need to follow a _dream_!

At least, I had my anonymity; my armour and mask hid my identity and I was generally overlooked by most. The armour also hid my age, too – as well as protecting me when I found myself in over my head; which was often. There were not too many rebellious vigilantes my age, but for some reason, I was able to fight and win against people who normally _should_ be able to squash me like a bug on the windscreen of a T-16. My reflexes were remarkably good, but I put that off to my ancestry.

I found myself sinking down to some of the lower levels of Coruscant and ended up with myself in a seedy bar where I bought a drink and then sat down in a nice quiet corner to blend in.

* * *

I was keeping an eye on my surroundings, as always, but I never seemed to notice the old man who slid into the booth beside me.

"Hello, Mindy – we need to talk."

I was instantly on guard, but something inside me told me that this old man was not a threat – at least not to me.

"Who are you?"

"My name is Falon, Falon Grey and I knew your parents before they were murdered..."

The man looked around for a moment before flipping the hood of his cloak up over his head.

"It is time to leave – follow me..."

I took a last gulp of my drink, pulled down my mask and wrapped the scarf around my lower face and stood up. The man moved quickly for somebody of his age and I had to jog after him before he jumped into a very dirty and very banged up speeder. He indicated for me to jump in, which I did and we rapidly moved off, ascending steeply and spiralling up a dozen levels before we stopped beside what looked to be a _very_ bad neighbourhood.

..._...

The man, Falon, climbed out and headed towards a door which opened at the wave of his hand – neat! We climbed up three levels in the apartment complex before he opened another door, in the same way. Who was this man?

"Sit – I have something to show you..."

The man was quiet and gentle in the way that he spoke.

"These were recovered after the death of your _real_ parents. One belonged to your Father and the other to your Mother. They form a pair – a rarity for those devices, but not exceptional."

The man produced a container about two feet long and he passed it across to me. I took it and placed it onto a table before me. I hesitated – I had nothing from my real parents; I had been adopted when I was about two.

"Your parents survived Order 66, but only for about four years. They were tracked down and murdered by the Sith Lord, Darth Vader, when you were two-years-old. Thankfully you were hidden away from him, or you might have met the same fate..."

..._...

I tentatively opened the container. Inside was a cloth which I gently pulled apart to reveal two identical objects. I gently lifted one of them out and held it in my hand. It was just over a foot long and it felt cool and comfortable in my hand.

"That, is your Father's lightsaber..."

"A _lightsaber_ – I thought that they were banned..."

"They were – _are_ , I should say, so don't flash them about unless you really have to... Slide that down to activate the weapon and then press that button to extend the blade..."

With a whooshing sound, the blade of the laser sword extended out to about a little over three-feet. Surprisingly, the purple plasma that made up the blade did not feel hot, as I would have expected – a magnetic shield maybe? I released the button and the blade retracted. I turned my attention to the other lightsaber. It was identical to the first, except for the base of the hilt.

"They fit together to form a Saberstaff – quite rare..."

The two sections locked together to form a two-and-a-half-foot long device. I held it horizontally in my right hand and slid each switch towards the centre and two blades appeared, first one and then the other. Two identical purple blades. I felt the power of the weapon flow through me and then a thought came to my mind and I shut the Saberstaff off, separating each part and laying them back in the container.

"This is the weapon of a Jedi – are you saying that my parents were Jedi? Am I a Jedi?"

..._...

I never received my response as Falon Grey jumped up and headed for the door.

"We must go – we are not safe here. I would advise you to get back to your ship and leave the planet as soon as possible."

I seized the container and ran after Falon.

* * *

Once we were outside, Falon pointed to the elevators.

"Go – I will be in touch. I would suggest you make for Tatooine..."

With that, he was gone…

I made my way to the elevator that would take me up through the City and towards my ship which rested at one of the Docking Bays nearer the surface. I had walked maybe two hundred yards when I heard shouting and the echoes of blaster fire.

I made directly for the elevator – I had no wish to be involved in anything and I ensured that my scarf was wrapped tightly around my face and that my mask was in place. But as I approached the door to the elevator, I was roughly shoved to one side by a boy.

"What the hell do you think...?"

I never got to complete the sentence as I saw a white clad stormtrooper with blue markings come around the corner, just as the elevator door slid open. I dived in, pulling the boy with me and stabbing at the first button that my finger found.

I felt fear and I knew instantly that I was in a bad place. I turned and saw the stormtrooper stop and raise his blaster.

"Come out of there – now!" He yelled.

I thrust my hand up, palm out and to my surprise the stormtrooper fell backwards just as the door closed and the elevator accelerated upwards. I slumped to the floor, feeling drained. The boy looked down at me rather strangely. He had dark curly hair and blue eyes – then he smiled.

"Thanks..."

* * *

The elevator stopped, sixteen levels above and the moment the doors opened, I ran out, followed by the boy.

We headed towards the steps that would take us up the next few levels – we had to put a lot of distance between us and the stormtroopers. I ran fast, but the boy was able to keep up easily; he was a few inches taller than me and he had longer legs!

We must have run for quite a distance as we rose up to the surface and headed for the Docking Bay and safety. But then, when we were only a short distance from the Docking Bay, we stopped – at least the boy did and I skidded to a halt and stared at him strangely. He was staring in another direction and not the direction that we had been heading in.

"What's up? We need to go – err... I'm Mindy by the way..."

"I'm Dave – I need, well I don't know – something..."

"You losing it, err, Dave?"

The boy, Dave, began to walk off and when I saw where he was headed, I grabbed his arm.

"Are you nuts?" I exclaimed. "That's the Imperial Palace!"

* * *

A while later, I was feeling very uncomfortable as I found myself in the shadow of the former Jedi Temple. The person that lived there made my skin crawl – _he_ was the reason that I was an orphan and the reason that the entire galaxy was the way it was...

What the hell was I doing?

"Let's get out of here!" Dave said suddenly and he began to walk away from the Palace.

That was when we were spotted and our walk turned into a very energetic run!

..._...

As we approached the Docking Bay, I pulled out a comlink.

"Kate! Get the ship ready to leave and fast!"

We continued running, diving down alleyways as we tried to put off our pursuers.

* * *

 ** _Docking Bay 7632_**

Dave stopped and stared as we came around the corner.

"What?" I asked in a rather exasperated tone.

"What junk yard did you pull _that_ out of?"

I glared at him very hard indeed, but he just smirked at me.

"The _Sentinel_ is _not_ junk!" I retorted angrily. " _She_ is our ticket outta here!"

I headed for the access ramp and I was very pleased to hear the steadily increasing whine of the propulsion systems coming online one by one and then Dave suddenly skidded to a halt as Kate came down the ramp and brought up a heavy blaster.

"Sorry – Kate's with me..."

"Kate!"

Dave's eyes bulged out as he ran past the heavily modified, dark grey B1-K8 Battle Droid and up into the ship. From the engine room I could hear the ion drives and their associated fuel systems building up to operating temperature which told me that we were almost ready for take-off. The steady hum of the repuslorlift engines idling could be heard and a gentle vibration in the deck plates could be felt as the vessel came alive. I turned to the right and ran down a short corridor before making a left turn into the cockpit and diving into the left seat. I began to flick switches and yelled for Kate to get aboard. I saw the indicator light illuminate that showed the ramp closed and locked. Dave came in to the Cockpit and sat beside me.

"Kate – I need hyperspace co-ordinates ready for the moment we are clear of the atmosphere..."

"Already programmed into the navicomputer..."

"What would I do without him?" I grinned.

..._...

The _Sentinel_ lifted off the ground rather shakily and rose upwards. I felt five satisfying thumps as the landing struts locked into place. We angled upwards, accelerating through the ship filled sky and spinning to avoid a few close calls. Then we burst out into the blackness of space and a few seconds later the Cockpit windows filled with streaks of white light as we accelerated to light-speed and on into hyperspace.

Once in the blue tunnel of hyperspace travel, I turned to Dave.

"Fancy a drink?"


	2. Hyperspace

We both sat on the curved seat in the Lounge without speaking and just staring at our drinks.

"So," Dave began tentatively, breaking the uncomfortable silence. "You have a nice ship here..."

"Yes..." I replied. "Err, thanks..."

Why was I being so wooden?

"Had her long?"

"Yes..."

"A girl of many words!"

I laughed.

"Sorry, first time with a boy..."

I felt myself blushing as I said it.

"I never spent time with a girl either..."

"This conversation is crap!" I commented dryly after another uncomfortable silence.

"Shall we start again? I'm Dave."

"Mindy, and this is my ship, the _Sentinel_... Him through there – that is B1-K8, but I call him 'Kate'."

"He's a Battle Droid!"

"Yeah, my parents repaired him and gave him the brain from an R3 unit – he has a rather dry sense of humour and he can be _really_ obnoxious, but I rely on him with the _Sentinel_."

"The _Sentinel_ is a YT-2400?"

"Modified from stock, but yeah..."

"How old are you, if you don't mind me asking?"

I hesitated for a moment before replying.

"Thirteen..."

"Thirteen?"

"Yeah – you got a problem with that?"

"No, no – I'm fifteen, but you look good for thirteen..."

I felt myself blushing again – for some reason I felt uncomfortable around boys and Dave in particular; why?

"Well, we may as well get comfortable – we have three days in hyperspace."

"Where are we going?"

"Tatooine."

* * *

I felt a lot more comfortable once I had removed the armour that I was wearing over most of my body.

The armour that I wore, was a leftover from the Clone Wars. It was what the Clones called, Phase II armour. It was dirty, somewhat dented and had not been white for quite some time, but it was functional. Around my waist, attached to my utility-belt, I wore a maroon leather Kama which came down to just below the backs of my knees. The armour was heavily customised to my body size – which was 'compact'... I did not wear the helmet – favouring the mask and scarf instead. The helmet remained on the _Sentinel_ and combined with the full suit, it could be pressurised and therefore allow me access to the outside of the ship when in space for a limited period of time.

The armour was a pain to put on and remove, having upwards of a dozen components, but it had protected me so far, keeping me alive, and I had a good selection of spare parts and panels.

After pulling off the two-part body glove and my shorts, I took a brief shower and pulled on some loose fitting clothes.

* * *

I was impressed – the ship was old, but was tidy and seemed sound.

Mindy had gone to remove her armour and take a shower – or so she had said as she vanished out of the Lounge; I was left to sit on the seat and wait. Kate clunked past once or twice to check on the cockpit, but otherwise the droid seemed to have other things to do. Mindy reappeared a while later and she looked very different.

She was short – about an inch over five feet and slim. Without all the armour she had been wearing – and the scarf, she looked good and I could see the contours of her body which indicated that she was growing into a young woman. The armour had given her a few extra inches in height and had bulked her out a bit. For the first time, I noticed the long blonde hair that would have fallen to just below her shoulders had she not had it up in a ponytail. There was no excess fat on her body; it all seemed to be toned muscle. She was wearing some soft shoes, light cream trousers and a grey halter top. Her skin was pale, but a pleasant and healthy tone and her eyes were a sparkling green.

..._...

"You enjoying the view?"

I suddenly became aware that I had been staring.

"No – I mean yes… Yes!" I stammered and Mindy chuckled at my discomfort, but I did see a slight pinkness come to her cheeks.

"Look by all means, just don't think of touching...!"

Mindy walked past the Lounge towards the corridor that led to the Cockpit, still talking.

"My cabin is in there," she continued, pointing to a door on the left then vanishing. She reappeared and waved for me to follow her. "That was the Lounge, with the Galley over to the side. There is the ramp to the left of the Doughnut."

The 'doughnut' was the centre of the ship apparently.

"Up and down are two CEC AG-2G quad laser cannons," Mindy said as she waved at a ladder that led up and down, in the centre of the Doughnut. "The main area of the left front quadrant is the Main Hold. Next to it are a pair of cabins. You can have that one, by the Airlock and Docking Ring – it's the most comfortable after mine – locking code is: six-four-six-nine-four. Fresher suite is in there and there are two more cabins off the Doughnut – not in the best condition and best avoided... To the left of the ramp is Number 2 Hold. Right aft is Main Engineering and Escape Pod 2. Escape Pod 1 is directly aft of the Cockpit."

* * *

We found ourselves back in the Lounge where Kate was visible in the Galley and I could smell food.

I was usually very hungry after a 'mission' and Kate knew that – so he was cooking my favourite; Corellian nerf sausage with Corellian potato sticks. I hoped Dave liked Corellian cuisine! The boy indicated that he wanted to take a shower.

..._...

By the time Dave returned, the food was almost ready. He was wearing the same clothes – he obviously did not have anything else to change into. He was tall, with dark brown curly hair. His eyes were an alluring blue and he was tall – he had at least five inches on me. He was fairly well built and I could see some muscle on his upper arms.

He wore a pair of loose, dark blue trousers that had a large cargo pocket on each thigh. On his top half, he wore a black t-shirt and a dark brown, leather jacket which for now he had dumped on a seat. On his feet he wore knee length black boots. I had to admit, he looked... Handsome!

..._...

As we sat at the bar in the Galley, we ate and we talked. It seemed that neither of us had parents, but Dave would not go into any further detail. I was the same, so I did not argue. I also took a moment as I ate to consider the container that I had hidden in my cabin; I really wanted to retrieve my parents' lightsabers and study them, but I wanted to do it in private.

Dave said he was tired, once he had finished his meal and he went to his cabin and soon fell asleep. I left Kate on watch in the Cockpit and headed for my own cabin and my mixed thoughts. I closed the cabin door behind me and pulled out the container from its hiding place.

..._...

I slowly pulled out the two laser swords and lay them on my bunk.

I treated each weapon with the reverence that they justly deserved. It was not just that they belonged to my parents, it was also that they were the weapons of the Jedi. The Jedi were all wiped out – at least they were if you listened to the crap that was spread about by the Empire. There had been rumours about surviving Jedi, but they were just that; rumours.

Even the weapons of the Jedi were banned. Anybody caught with a lightsaber usually met a summary death at the hands of Darth Vader's evil minions. Nobody dared even touch a lightsaber – even if they ever saw one. I had no memory of ever having seen one before. I knew about them, of course, who didn't! For some, even those of _my_ age – the Jedi and what they represented were becoming stories, myths and legends.

The Force – what was it? Was it real? If I were a Jedi, could I use the Force? There was no way that I could be a Jedi! I had no powers – but then I remembered something; that stormtrooper who had fallen...

Had that been me?

* * *

I awoke several hours later and found myself still hugging the lightsabers.

That was rather stupid, I thought – what if they had activated; a scary thought! I replaced them in their cloth-lined container before I ran some cold water over my face. I had slept as well as I normally did, but I still felt drained as I changed my top. I picked a figure-hugging white top with no sleeves and which crossed over my breasts – what there was of them...

I liked the view as I checked myself out in the mirror. The top exposed my slim waist and my navel – I had no problem with showing some skin, at least when I was not 'working'! Now, I thought as I grinned at myself, what reaction could I get from Dave...

..._...

I found Dave in the Lounge eating some biscuits for breakfast along with some milk. I did the same, grabbing some biscuits from a plate on the Galley bar.

"Good morning, Mistress Mindy!"

"Morning, Kate – sleep well?"

"Funny!" Kate replied as he walked out of the Lounge.

"You enjoy teasing him, don't you?" Dave inquired. "Morning!"

"Good morning, Dave – yes I do like to tease him; he teases me!"

I noticed Dave checking out my top, not to mention the gentle bulges in my chest area. Again, I felt myself blushing – why did I react that way around boys? I decided that I needed to teach Dave some respect – maybe some sparring.

How good could he be?

* * *

After breakfast, I found myself in the Main Hold, facing Mindy.

She was smirking and something about the smirk worried me. She had said that she wanted to spar – I was not worried; I had a few inches on her and a lot more muscle!

"Okay, boy, let's see what you can do now..."

I shrugged and without warning I sent a strong kick into Mindy's stomach; she went down like a sack of Corellian potatoes! She lay on the metal gratings, groaning with her arms wrapped around her stomach. I went over and got down on one knee beside her.

"You okay?"

Mindy coughed a couple of times and she had tears in her eyes.

"Yeah... That was good – very good!"

* * *

Asshole!

I had _not_ expected that! The boy had some moves; I had to give him that, but I _hated_ being beaten – I was _not_ going to let him off...

I span around and wrapped my left leg around his neck, pulling him down and flipping on top of him. I smiled as Dave struggled against my hold, but then my own smile vanished as his strength began to overpower my own. I flipped backwards and away from him before he threw me.

Dave jumped nimbly to his feet.

"Where'd you learn to fight?" I asked casually.

"My parents taught me from when I was about five."

We circled each other, keeping our distance and gauging each other.

"Is this some weird Human mating ritual?"

"Huh?" I queried, looking over at Kate.

Too late, I saw the shadow advancing for my head and realised that Kate had distracted me. All too soon, I was back on the gratings again; damn droid!

"Very sorry, mistress... Ha!" Kate said as he continued past the Hold.

..._...

"There must be more..." I continued as I got back to my feet ignoring the grinning Dave.

"I've been living on the streets for two months now and well, Coruscant is _not_ the safest place in the galaxy!" Dave replied offhandedly.

"No, and neither is Jakku…!"

I leapt at Dave, kicking out with my left leg and catching him in the shoulder. I span and kicked him in the chest as he went down before I rammed my fist into his stomach. Dave hit the deck hard and groaned at my assault on his torso.

"Interesting..." Kate commented from the hatchway as I stood astride Dave.

"Kate – I swear I will deactivate your voice processors if you say one more word...!"

"Roger, roger!"

Kate vanished.

"I thought you said he had the brain of an astrodroid," Dave commented from the deck.

"He thinks he's funny, imitating what he used to be. He still has the Battle Droid brain, but only as a secondary processor – and I'm sure that's where he gets his wit from!" I growled, helping Dave up to a sitting position.

"You can look after yourself, Mindy!"

"You too..."

"Obviously, we have both been living where we need out wits and we needed to learn fast – to survive. You mentioned, Jakku..."

"I did – a barren wasteland in the Western Reaches; famed for... Well for being a long way away from just about anything!"

"Maybe..."

Dave was cut off as an alarm sounded throughout the ship...


	3. Kicking Ass

With a steadily increasing vibration, the _Sentinel_ shuddered, but then all vibration abruptly ceased as the ship unexpectedly dropped out of hyperspace.

There was a loud bang from the engine room and the acrid smell of something burning, then another alarm sounded.

"Fire!" I yelled out as smoke rapidly billowed out of the engine room before being cut off as a bulkhead slammed closed.

Beside the closed bulkhead, an indicator lit up illuminating a sign: 'CAUTION – FIRE SUPPRESSION UNDER WAY!'

"Problem?" Dave asked with a smirk.

"Nothing major – I hope..." I replied with a grimace as Kate appeared.

"The fire is out, mistress. The primary power coupling for the secondary blade of the primary hyperspace generator has burnt out," Kate explained. "It will need to be replaced..."

"No shit, super-brain!" I retorted, then I looked at Dave. "Well it can't get any worse..."

All the lights went out as the main power failed completely and we were all plunged into darkness.

"... Kriff!"

"But then again..." Dave quipped.

* * *

Mindy was _not_ happy!

In fact, I was keeping well out of her way as she swore violently at what passed for the _Sentinel's_ vital components. She wore a face mask to help her breath as the thick black, choking smoke was still clogging the engine room – there was no functioning air conditioning to suck the smoke away! I was wearing a breathing mask too and it was very uncomfortable.

"Hey, asshole – keep that light steady!"

I kept the light steady as I watched her small hands deftly manoeuvre tools and electronic parts smoothly and efficiently.

"Got it!"

There was a satisfying clunk and all the lights snapped on. Mindy smiled and climbed out of the innards of her ship. I turned off the work-light.

"Temperamental bitch!" Mindy growled as she patted her ship.

As if in response, we were instantly plunged back into total darkness.

"I think you may have missed something..." Kate offered unhelpfully, his eyes glowing in the darkness.

There was a dull 'thunk' as something metallic hit something else metallic.

"That hurt on _so_ many levels..." Kate commented.

* * *

Two hours later, all power was restored.

The smoke was gone and the hyperspace generator was functional – at ninety-two percent; I would need to find some hard cash and buy some much-needed parts which were _not_ going to be cheap! I felt rather embarrassed when I found Dave smirking in the Lounge.

"Sorry about that – she can be a problem at times. She needs a damn good overhaul..." I paused as Dave reached out and rubbed some oil off my bare shoulder.

My skin tingled as he touched it – what was wrong with me?

"I'm a mess!" I responded.

Any further, possibly interesting, thoughts were cut off as another alarm sounded.

"Aw come on!" I screamed as I ran for the Cockpit.

Two resounding crashes shook the _Sentinel_...

* * *

"Somebody is shooting at us!"

"I had kinda noticed, Dave, but thanks for updating me!" I growled back as I slid into my seat.

We had dropped out of hyperspace in a bad neighbourhood – part of the Inner Rim. We still had a long way to go to Tatooine and now we were being attacked. I looked out of the Cockpit to try and see what had attacked us.

The ship was not large, slightly smaller than our own and, I assumed, lightly armed by the fact that the blasts were not penetrating our armour. They were not a major threat, but the _Sentinel_ had enough problems without further damage.

"Kate – power up the upper and lower laser cannons and slave them to Cockpit targeting..."

The front of the cockpit was made up of five windows, the centre of which was circular. Around the top half of this circular window were four equal sized windows forming a 180-degree spread. Within a minute, a green targeting overlay appeared on the upper pair of the four windows.

"Cool!" Dave commented.

"I can fire either or both of the two quad laser cannons mounted on the top and bottom of the ship, from here. That other ship is small and under normal circumstances a YT-2400 could be easy prey – only the _Sentinel_ is, as I said before – not stock!"

"So that idiot out there, has no idea what he has just taken on?"

"Exactly!"

* * *

Mindy pulled the ship into a tight turn and accelerated hard to cut off the attacker.

I noticed that she flew the ship amazingly fluidly with Kate looking after everything except for the actual flying and shooting. Kate's involvement was obviously a huge help to Mindy as the ship was fought.

She was an amazing pilot – but so was the guy flying the other ship! Both vessels twisted and weaved as they tried to avoid incoming fire and also to get into a good position to engage the other. I had a distinct feeling that the other pilot had now figured out that this particular YT-2400 was _not_ going to be easy pickings! After some fast manoeuvring, we were in position and I saw the target in the heads-up-display surrounded by a set of four red flashing arrows. Then I was stunned as multiple red laser bolts erupted from above and beneath the _Sentinel_ , over to our left.

..._...

The _Sentinel_ was certainly well armed! Several of the laser bolts struck home causing small explosions on the hull and the other ship to buck and shake.

"Yeah!" Mindy yelled out as she spun the ship around for another pass at the G9 light freighter.

The gun at the end of the strut, which extended out from the starboard side of the freighter, turned to follow us, emitting green bursts in our direction – until Mindy blew it off! I whooped with joy, which Mindy blushed at, but she smiled through it nonetheless. The enemy craft was not twisting and turning so much, not now it was trailing wreckage behind it at least.

"Should we let him go?" I said pointedly.

"Kriff no!" Mindy replied, sending another burst into the main body of the other vessel.

* * *

I grinned broadly as the other vessel came apart.

I loved my life!

"Kate – safe the guns and get us back into hyperspace..."

"So, who was he?" Dave asked.

"Don't know – don't care – he attacked _me_!"

"You are one cold bitch!"

"Yes, I am!"

"I'm starting to like you, Mindy..."

"You ain't seen nothing yet, Dave..."

As we finished speaking, the _Sentinel_ accelerated forwards, past the smouldering wreckage of the freighter and onwards into the blue shroud of hyperspace.

* * *

An hour later, I was kicking Mindy in her left side.

It was retaliation for a sharp kick in my own side – which hurt! Our sparring had moved on from exploratory and it was now decidedly invasive... I also learnt that Mindy was _not_ a good loser – when she found herself losing, she doubled her efforts and the girl had a lot of stamina for somebody so young.

"You should learn when to quit," I commented between breaths.

"Don't know the meaning of the word..." Mindy spat out, just as breathless as I was.

"Could be useful in a tough situation," I replied.

"Tell me about it..."

Mindy tried to spin-kick me, but she was exhausted – what with all the day's activity – so she crashed into me and we both went down, rolling into a heap with her on top of me. I found myself gazing into her mesmerizingly beautiful green eyes. Mindy seemed to be doing the same; gazing into my own eyes, but then her face suddenly went pink and she jumped to her feet.

"Sorry about that..." she stammered as she stood above me.

"I'm not complaining," I replied with a grin.

Mindy went a deeper shade of pink and then glared at me for a moment before reaching down to pull me to my feet.

"I know somebody who sounds just like you..." she commented without any further elaboration.

* * *

Damn!

That felt... good...

I made an excuse about checking the Cockpit and Dave went to bed – we were both shattered after the day's events. I decided that I needed some time to myself – to calm down! I had some thinking to do. I knew next to nothing about Dave, but something inside me said that I could trust him – and that I _should_ trust him.

Kate had run some checks on Dave, which were inconclusive. For now, I would trust him – I had to... I needed too; I was fed up with being alone. Kate did not count – he was a damn droid; I wanted a partner – and _not_ a sidekick either...

What was I thinking? I had only known him a little over a day and...

Why was I drawn to Dave? There was a bond there, but I had no idea what – I was a firm believer in fate, so maybe it would all come clear... over time.

I was still thinking about Dave when I lay down on my bunk and I considered going to talk with him, but sleep overtook me.

* * *

There was no sign of Mindy when I awoke, so I went and showered.

As I walked past the Lounge, I noticed that the door to Mindy's cabin was open and light was flooding out. I took a couple more paces and turned to say...

Mindy was standing with her back to me, putting her hair up in a pony-tail – nothing strange about that you might say, only she had no top on! I caught a glance in the mirror of Mindy's bare chest and I began to turn away.

"Am I that bad?" Mindy laughed.

I turned away completely and after a moment I felt a hand on my back. I turned to see Mindy, this time with a top on – a dark purple top with long sleeves.

"Sorry if I startled you..." I began. "You look beautiful..."

"Don't be," Mindy said cheerfully, her face going pink. "I'm not used to having others onboard, so I forgot..."

"No harm done," I replied with a smirk.

..._...

After breakfast, Mindy took me through the _Sentinel's_ controls in the Cockpit. I was familiar with certain aspects of flying and I had flown, once or twice, but nothing as large as the _Sentinel_. Mindy was a very good teacher and was patient with me when I made mistakes – although Kate was not and he often made disparaging remarks about my skills!

We dropped out of hyperspace to allow the damaged hyperspace generator time to cool down. Mindy gave me instructions to fly the _Sentinel_ towards a small moon where we would be harder to detect – we had no desire to be attacked again.

However, we found somebody already there.

* * *

It was another Corellian Engineering Corporation freighter, which while more than a bit battered, was otherwise very familiar.

I grinned, reached for a headset and hit a button on the console. I threw another headset at Dave before I spoke.

"What the hell is _that_ rust-bucket doing here?" I called.

"What's up, Hit-Girl – you lost?" The cheery voice called back with a friendly chuckle.

"Well, I don't want directions from a chauvinistic pig like you!"

"You love me really..."

I cut the communication and chuckled.

"Is that guy safe?" Dave queried.

"Well, there's safe and then there's safe..."

..._...

Once the two ships were docked – we were latched onto the other vessel's port Docking Ring – I made preparations to greet the crew of the other ship.

"He called you 'Hit-Girl'?"

"Yeah – about that... You've probably worked out that I'm not just Melieme Rhohal..."

"Who?"

"Melieme Rhohal – me..."

"But I thought you were 'Mindy'?"

"Yeah, well I never liked Melieme, so I went with my middle name: Mindy, when I was about four... Anyway – that guy knows me as the bounty-hunter, Hit-Girl. He probably also knows my real name – he's not stupid, but we give nothing away for free in my line of business – nor his, either, for that matter. I wouldn't recommend letting him know your real name, so..."

Dave looked at me expectantly – I was thinking hard and fast.

"Well, you can kick ass and you do it really well... That kick damn well hurt – so let's call you: Kick-Ass!"

"Kick-Ass!" Dave did _not_ sound impressed.

"Yeah – we'll go with that..."

..._...

I walked out of the Cockpit, followed by the unconvinced Dave. After ducking into my cabin for a moment, Dave gave me a raised eyebrow as I strapped on my blaster and belt.

"Better to be safe than sorry – I would very much like to live to see fourteen!"

Our progress was blocked part-way around the Doughnut when Kate stepped into view. He was holding a pistol belt together with a Model 57 blaster pistol.

"I think Master Kick-Ass should be suitably attired, Mistress Hit-Girl!"

Sometimes, Kate had some good ideas... We continued around to the Airlock and the Docking Ring. Once I had checked that the Airlock was correctly pressurised, I pressed the button to open the inner doors. I walked through to the outer doors of the Docking Ring where the indicator showed a positive pressure on the other side.

I took a deep breath and with my right hand on my blaster, I stabbed the 'open' button for the airlock.


	4. Smugglers

The thickly armoured, outer door of the Docking Ring slid smoothly open.

I immediately found myself face to face with a handsomely rugged looking man who towered above both me _and_ Dave. The man bore his usual, 'I'm full of myself' grin.

"Han Solo!" I exclaimed in greeting.

"Hit-Girl!"

I turned to the _Millennium Falcon's_ furry First Mate.

"How you doing, Chewbacca?"

"Wyaaaaaa," the Wookie replied.

"You still hanging around with this loser?" I chuckled, indicating Han.

Chewbacca made a non-committal nod of his head in response.

"So, who's the boyfriend?" Solo asked with a smile.

"He is _not_ my boyfriend!" I replied indignantly.

"Sex slave?"

I glared at the smirking smuggler.

"He is my partner..."

"A bounty-hunter, like you?"

"Yeah..."

Han took a moment to size Dave up.

"So, Hit-Girl – what does _he_ call himself?"

"I go by, Kick-Ass!" Dave offered.

" _Kick-Ass!_ "

"Got a problem with that, _Han_?" Dave growled.

"Not a thing, kid, not a thing!" Han replied before turning back to me with a dirty smirk. "You at least kissed him, right?"

I felt myself blushing.

"Do I need to shoot you?"

"No offence, little lady!"

"Look, laser-brain... Remember, this little lady carries a fracking blaster!"

Solo looked hurt for a moment as he held his arms up and wide attempting to look innocent but failing miserably...

"Hey, it's me..."

"That's why I carry a blaster...!"

* * *

With the pleasantries exchanged, we got down to business.

We had not planned on meeting – I tried to avoid Solo as much as possible; the man infuriated me for many, many reasons! The man was also a very devious – and successful – smuggler and I despised him for it, but he was infuriatingly charming and I tended to enjoy our witty banter. I liked Chewbacca too – he was awesome, but funny. Dave had obviously never seen a Wookie up close and personal before and he seemed a little overawed by Chewbacca's size.

Han had some supplies that I needed and I had some 'items' that he needed, so we spent an hour bartering. Solo would always start with a ridiculous offer and I would have to barter him down. He was well known for his talking and the ability to talk himself out of anything – although sometimes he talked himself _into_ problems!

..._...

"So, Han – how did you and err, Hit-Girl, meet?" Dave asked.

Han laughed.

"Funny story that," he smirked at Hit-Girl, "about a year ago, our mutual friend here, received a contract to hunt down, and kill, yours truly. Lucky for me, Hit-Girl is very selective about the contracts she follows through – not to mention that she could see that I was obviously innocent..."

I started choking on that!

"Maybe not _so_ innocent, but we became _very_ close friends..."

I coughed.

"... _Close_ friends?"

I coughed again.

"... _Friends_?"

I decided to let him off there and nodded.

"I let him live and in return he points me towards people who need help – _that's_ what I do!"

"Sounds like you're in Hit-Girl's debt, Han Solo..."

"I suppose I am – I'm always in debt to somebody!"

* * *

As Han kept an eye on the exchange of supplies, he pulled me off to one side.

"You two seem well matched – take it from somebody who knows..." He said seriously. "However, if you want it to work, be open – Hit-Girl _is_ devious and she _always_ gets beyond a lie and she is excellent at worming out secrets as well as anybody – women always find out when a man is keeping something from them."

I nodded.

"Good advice – she _is_ a special girl and I have no intention of getting on her bad side!"

" _Don't_ – you'll want to trust me on that!"

"What're you two guys up to?" Mindy demanded as she found us both lurking.

"Discussing you, honey!" Han chuckled.

I just shrugged and headed back towards the _Sentinel_ , leaving Mindy glaring at Han. On the way, I noticed Chewbacca shaking his head in dismay – he must have overheard most of what was just said.

* * *

 ** _An hour later_**

"Stay out of trouble!" Mindy called over the communications system.

"Stay safe, Hit-Girl – I mean that..."

"Get going, you pirate!"

With that, the _Millennium Falcon_ accelerated away and was soon gone in a flash of light as she went to light-speed. We pointed ourselves towards a different star and I engaged the hyperdrive which span up with an audible whine before the stars elongated and we found ourselves in the hypnotic blue tunnel of hyperspace.

..._...

Mindy turned to me and smirked.

"Fancy some exercise before we eat?"

"What did you have in mind?" I asked, a little uneasily.

"Oh, just some new kit and maybe some sparring..."

Mindy dragged me aft and into the Number 2 Hold.

"Awesome!" I exclaimed as I looked around the compartment.

The Number 2 Hold was much smaller than the Main Hold and was almost wedge-shaped. On the forward bulkhead was a very nice weapon collection that included numerous blasters, both light and heavy. There was also a decidedly dangerous looking collection of explosives piled near to the starboard bulkhead. Mindy turned to me and said a single word.

"Strip!"

..._...

I grinned and after seeing what Mindy was digging through, I pulled off my clothes, stopping only at my shorts. Mindy looked up and did a double-take. I smirked. Mindy blushed.

"Put this on!"

Mindy passed me a black body sock. I pulled it on before I was handed a succession of armour sections. First came the thighs, which were dark green, then the lower leg sections which were also dark green. A pair of knee protectors connected the thigh and lower leg sections, securing behind the knee. The knee protectors were a dull yellow colour.

Mindy smirked as she passed me the groin, pelvic and waist sections – I ignored the smirk and fitted them around my lower regions. The waist section was yellow while the others were a lighter shade of green. The largest piece, the upper torso armour, was dark green and fitted securely and snugly over the waist and pelvic sections of armour.

Next on the list, were the arm sections, three of them – lower arms with communications array on the right wrist, upper arms and elbow protectors – these last items were yellow. Attaching to the upper torso section were a pair of dark green shoulder pads that had a single yellow strip down the centre of them.

The almost final items, were the black gloves with the light green armour protecting the back of the hands. On my feet went a pair of armed boots in light green. Mindy handed me a utility belt in black. On this were various pouches and attachments, including communications and spare cartridges for blasters. Suspended from the belt was a dark green kama with yellow trim and on that kama were mounted a pair of blaster holsters. The armour was not light, but not overly heavy, either.

The final item was the helmet.

..._...

I recognised the distinctive design instantly – it was the Phase II helmet of a senior Clone Officer, but with a distinctive design. The markings that ran around the t-shaped eye lens and down to the chin, were yellow, while the rest of the helmet was a dark green. I pulled it on over my head and it felt very comfortable.

"How does it feel?" I heard in my ears.

I looked over at Mindy and saw that she was wearing a helmet too. It was of a very different design and was that of a Clone Commander of the Galactic Marines.

"It feels good, Mindy."

"You look good – go check yourself out in that mirror..."

..._...

I did as I was instructed, taking a few strides over to the mirror and studied my new look. The different colours actually went well together. It seemed that Mindy had struggled to assemble the armour out of any single colour. But I liked what I saw and I decided that the colours went together well.

Was I going along with this? Was I going to become some kind of rebel, some kind of vigilante? Well, I was in enough trouble with the Empire already, so what was a bit more...

"So?"

"I like it!" I replied as I turned around.

"So do I – it works better than I had hoped..."

* * *

I went through the laborious task of putting on my own armour, finally adding the helmet.

After a brief visit to the armoury, I went to find Dave – or rather Kick-Ass, who was waiting in the Main Hold. I passed him two blasters for his holsters.

"Westar-35 blasters – should add some weight to the armour and we'll see how you move in it."

"More weight – just what I needed – thanks!"

"Quit moaning, Kick-Ass, and let's fight..."

It felt strange conversing via the helmets – our voices were both changed electronically and Kick-Ass sounded weird. The communications system was turned off for now – less of a distraction. He squared off before me and I did the same before him.

..._...

I hated to fight in the helmet, but I had a feeling that I might need the protection...

That thought was confirmed quite quickly as an armoured fist hit my helmet, just below the left eye and sending me reeling backwards. I caught myself and drove forwards, hitting out at Dave.

For the next few minutes, we struck out at each other and the sounds of armour hitting armour reverberated around the Main Hold. Dave was good and wearing his armour, I could not get a debilitating strike on him.

..._...

We were at a stalemate.

I had hit Kick-Ass hard, but his armour was protecting him from injury – just as it should. He had also hit _me_ hard and I was getting very angry. I actually heard Kick-Ass chuckling a couple of times; he seemed to be enjoying himself – too damn much!

I kicked out, catching him in the chest, shoving him back but he regained his stature very quickly and moved fast to my right, getting closer. I had to keep him away from me, but he bored in and struck me very hard in my left side, knocking me to the deck. I looked up angrily and as Kick-Ass extended his arm to help me to my feet, I swung my right arm out with some force to refuse his help...

Kick-Ass flew backwards and crashed into a stack of crates.

* * *

Something, some force, had picked me up and thrown me into the crates.

I had not been able not stop it. I looked up and saw Mindy pull off her helmet. Her face showed shock and also concern.

"I'm _so_ sorry, Dave – I didn't mean it; it just happened..."

I got back to my feet and pulled off my own helmet. I smiled at Mindy reassuringly.

"I'm fine, just a little surprised – did you just use the Force on me?"

"Not intentionally..."

"It felt really strange – like something had control over me."

"I need to learn to control the Force – using it accidentally is not good and may get us into trouble," Mindy said quietly. "Let's get out of this armour and then get something to eat."

Was Mindy some kind of Jedi?

But the Jedi were extinct – weren't they?

My mind was filled with troubling thoughts as I began to remove my new armour.

* * *

Several hours later, we dropped out of Hyperspace in the Outer Rim Territories.

Before us was the sun-scorched planet of Tatooine and its twin suns. There was no hint of greenery, nor was there any hint of the blue that signified water on the surface of the desert planet. It reminded me of my current home, the planet of Jakku. We headed towards the Jundland Wastes and the spaceport town of Mos Eisley, which was located southeast of the Jundland Wastes.

The place was a hell hole and generally known as the 'armpit of the galaxy'. There were 362 Docking Bays or Hangers located in the spaceport and we landed at Docking Bay 92 after receiving clearance from the Imperial Base. As we approached our designated Docking Bay, I smiled; I recognised the familiar shape of another ship as we passed over Docking Bay 94.

I had a feeling that our visit to Mos Eisley was to be...

Exciting.


	5. Tatooine

**Tatooine, The Outer Rim  
Mos Eisley**

The man gazed up from his seat outside the Methane Fix Cantina on Dune Street.

It was his favourite spot, in the shadow of the _Dowager Queen_ wreckage. It was a good location for viewing the starships as they came into Mos Eisley. A few hours after dawn, a very familiar shape appeared over the spaceport and headed for one of the myriad of Docking Bays scattered around the bustling facility.

He smiled as he finished off his drink and pondered paying a visit on a very close friend.

* * *

 **Docking Bay 92**

I was with Mindy, preparing the speeders when a voice echoed up the ramp.

"Ahoy, _Sentinel_!"

I saw Mindy brace up for a moment and her eyes went wide. Then the most enormous grin appeared on her face.

"Rex!"

She bolted out of the Main Hold and over to the ramp as fast as she could move. I followed and saw a large man appear at the top of the ramp.

"Got a hug for an old warhorse?" The man asked and Mindy dived into his arms. "Wow – you have grown, girl!"

After a minute, Mindy finally let go of the man who had a white beard and seemed old. The man looked Mindy up and down for a moment, then scowled.

"Who taught you to dress yourself, girl?" He grumbled, casting an expert eye over her armour. "This should be tighter... and this should be further up your body – as for the condition...!"

The man roughly manoeuvred and adjusted Mindy's armour and tightened several straps enough to make Mindy wince, but Mindy never complained or stopped the man.

"You are a damn mess, Hit-Girl!" The man finished.

"Yes, Sir, Captain Rex, Sir!" Mindy replied with a grin and a mock salute.

Rex looked me up and down as he walked past me, towards the Lounge. He took in my armour and how I was wearing it. He nodded approvingly.

"At least, _this_ young man can dress himself!" Rex said with a chuckle and a wink.

Mindy smiled sweetly and was about to respond, but then she turned on Rex, suddenly looking angry.

"Did you know?" She demanded.

"Yeah, I did," Rex replied with a tone that showed he knew exactly what Mindy was talking about. Then he looked over at me. "Is he safe?"

"Yeah, Rex – Dave, this is Rex, an old family friend. Rex, this is Dave – a new family friend."

"Good to meet you, Dave."

"You too, Rex."

"Well?" Mindy went on.

"Did I know that you were a Jedi youngling? Yeah. Did I hide that fact from you? Yeah. Was I right to do that? Yeah."

"A young what?" I asked.

Rex sat down and turned to both of us.

"Mindy was born, thirteen years ago, to a pair of Jedi. Her parents were in hiding after Order 66 all but wiped out the Jedi. Mindy was found to be Force-sensitive and she was protected by her parents. However, Darth Vader soon tracked down her parents and he killed them – I rescued Mindy and took her away to safety. I've checked in on her, every few years since..."

* * *

The BARC speeders were long, over four and a half metres.

Manoeuvring them out of the _Sentinel_ was not easy, but we managed. Once they were hovering alongside, Rex gave Dave a thorough grounding on riding the repulsorcraft. Both of the speeders were painted in a dark blue colour scheme and appeared to be unarmed, civilian variants to the untrained eye. Rex, an expert on the speeders, provided tuition which would help Dave to stay alive.

..._...

Within half an hour, we had left Mos Eisley behind and we were speeding across the desert at over two-hundred kilometres per hour. A little over an hour later, we stopped beside the wreck of an old freighter, the _Spice Siren_ which was located in the Xelric Draw, to the north of the Jundland Wastes. There was not much left of the old freighter; the wreckage had mostly been picked clean by Jawas, many years previously.

I climbed off my speeder and walked around a bit to get the blood flowing in my limbs again. The area around us was very flat and we could see for many kilometres and we could see nothing – for many kilometres. I unwrapped the scarf from around my helmet and removed it. Kick-Ass did the same. The helmets filtered out the sand and kept us cool when speeding across the loose sands of the desert. We both drank some water, careful of how much we drank as supplies were not easy to obtain where we were.

..._...

I drew a blaster and sent several red plasma bolts into the wreckage, concentrating on one of the few remaining hull plates.

"Try and hit that same plate..." I suggested to Kick-Ass.

Kick-Ass pulled out one of his Westar-35 blasters and aimed it. He squeezed the trigger, sending a compressed, focused, high-energy particle beam towards the wreckage. The red plasma bolt impacted the wreckage a little to the right of where I had directed.

"Not bad – try again..."

The second bolt struck very close to where mine had. I was impressed with his marksmanship; as I said, it was not too bad.

"What was it that you said your parents did?" I asked.

Kick-Ass looked at me hesitantly before replying.

"They were stormtroopers..."

..._...

I immediately turned my blaster on Kick-Ass, aiming at his head. He was the enemy – I tried to squeeze the trigger, but I could not do it.

"I am _not_ a supporter of the Empire; you must believe me... My parents were killed when they tried to leave... Unfortunately, the Empire doesn't like people leaving."

I lowered my blaster, noticing that Kick-Ass had made no attempt at defending himself. It also occurred to me that he had not hidden the fact that he was the son of stormtroopers, only I had never asked. My instincts told me _not_ to trust him, but something else deep inside me said that I _should_ trust him.

"Sorry – just a habit of mine when I come across a stormtrooper – or somebody related to them..." I said with a smile.

"No harm done – I trust you."

..._...

I was considering some more blaster practice when the sensors on my speeder alerted me to something approaching. I grabbed a set of macrobinoculars and focussed them in the correct direction, off to the north. It was a Bantha-II cargo skiff and I recognised the markings as belonging to Jabba the Hutt – it was time to leave. Jabba was bad news and I had no desire to get myself involved with that crime lord, or any of his lackeys.

I refused to work for scum like Jabba – he was the very definition of what was wrong with the galaxy. I knew that Han often worked for Jabba – I had tried to dissuade him, but for Han it was easy money – so he said!

One day, Han was going to screw up and Jabba would hunt him down...

* * *

We returned to the _Sentinel_ that afternoon.

Once we were aboard, we settled down to a very late lunch. Dave seemed a little uneasy as we ate and I soon found out why.

"Rex seemed to think that you are a Jedi..."

I took a chance.

"I've only just found out – back on Coruscant a few days ago... back in a minute," I said as I got up and headed for my cabin. "Kate – secure the ramp."

I returned to the Lounge with the container in my hands. I placed it a table and pulled out one of the two lightsabers. I triggered the purple blade and held it up before me.

"A lightsaber!" Dave breathed, awe in his voice. "I thought they were illegal?"

"They are!"

"Well, you seem to able to control the Force..."

"Control – not really; accidentally use – yeah!"

Dave looked at me and then he stared at my lightsabre for a minute. He held out his hand, as if reaching for the weapon. What was he doing? The lightsabre actually moved and then after a moment's hesitation, it flew out of my hand and into Dave's outstretched hand.

Dave was so shocked that he dropped the lightsabre onto the couch. We both sat there staring at each other in shock. We were finally snapped out of it by Kate.

"I have a very bad feeling about this!" The droid commented.

* * *

Ignoring the fact that droids don't really have feelings, we ignored him and settled down to cleaning our armour from the morning's ride.

The fine sand had got into everything, as usual. We both showered to remove the final traces of sand and by the time we had stowed the BARC speeders, it was evening. We were very tired, so after a short meal, we both headed our separate ways for an early night as I wanted to be up early in the morning.

We both had a lot to think about.

* * *

 ** _Early the next morning_**

I awoke with a start and found myself on my bunk, in my cabin, on the _Sentinel_.

That was a weird dream, I thought, and damn scary too.

I had to think hard to remember what I had dreamt about.

There had been a temple, skeletons, Darth Vader... and a pair of lightsabers. My mind was full of strange stuff that refused to make sense. I got up and splashed some cold water on my face. Then I went for a walk around the Doughnut.

..._...

After about fifteen minutes, I manged to get my mind into some semblance of order.

I had been walking on a planet – the planet had a temperate climate, plenty of trees and green areas, plus some streams and lakes. There was a single yellow sun in the sky, the rays of which felt warm on my skin.

I was walking across a large open plain with nothing in sight except for some large fat, presumably domesticated, creatures that ate the grass. In the distance were some mountains and over to the right a large lake. With nothing else to do, I had continued walking in the same direction, eventually leaving the lake behind, and then after a few hours I had found myself approaching a rocky area – except it did not seem natural.

On closer inspection it was the site of something enormous, something that had been demolished quite some years before. Ominously, there were signs of blaster fire on the remaining, visible stonework – everything else seemed to have been blasted apart. Whatever the building had been, it must have been huge. Somebody had also taken a lot of effort to level it, too.

I found myself walking across the remains, stopping at a certain point and gazing into the ground. Why, I had no idea. Something told me that I had to go down there, something was pulling me – no, 'pulling' was not the correct word; 'calling' was better. Something was calling me into those ruins – I had to get there.

I had turned to leave the site and there, about a dozen metres away was the Sith Lord, himself, Darth Vader... He advanced towards me, reaching under his black cloak – his lightsaber activated in a burst of red light and...

I awoke.

* * *

I went back to my bunk and just lay there until I heard Mindy moving about.

Over breakfast I explained my dream to Mindy, expecting her to laugh at me... but no; she seemed pensive as she replied, somewhat uneasily.

"I followed a similar 'dream' and I ended up with my parents' lightsabers, not to mention you..."

"So you think that I..., I mean we, should follow my dream?"

"Definitely – I'm keen to find out of you are really a Jedi, though. I've heard people say that the Force works in mysterious ways – maybe _this_ is one of those ways."

..._...

"One catch – I have no idea what the planet's name was..."

"Could you find it on a star map?" Mindy asked, pulling me into the Lounge and putting up a star map of the galaxy on a large screen mounted on the forward bulkhead.

"I'll try..."

Two minutes later, I was certain and I planted my finger firmly on the Mid Rim, near to Bothan Space.

"There's nothing there," Mindy complained.

"I believe that there is..."

"It's a long way to go – we'll need to get some serious credits to buy enough fuel; it'll take eighteen days to get there..."

"I'm sure something will turn up."


	6. A Destiny

**_Mos Eisley  
Tatooine_**

The old man tensed up as he walked through Mos Eisley.

He wore a cloak that fully covered him, from head to toe. He frowned – something was troubling him; his senses began working the problem. He was feeling something that he had not felt for many years; there were Jedi on Tatooine.

That was not a _huge_ surprise; he knew that there could be – one in particular at any rate, however, what he felt was different – a young female and a young male. They were undisciplined, that he knew and they were close.

What _did_ that mean?

* * *

 ** _Later that morning_**

Something told me that the next few days were going to go badly.

I also had no idea why that crazy old man was staring at me – I ignored him and set about gathering some much needed supplies for what could be more than a few weeks in space. The costs had gone up considerably on the Outer Rim as supplies were being interdicted by the Empire and either taxed extortionately, or otherwise simply diverted.

I had everything that we purchased, delivered to our Docking Bay, as it was bought.

..._...

Apart from that crazy old man, I noticed something else unnerving – Greedo. I found the Rodian creepy and generally overzealous. He often gave us bounty hunters a bad name, bending and breaking our rules as he saw fit. What also worried me was who he usually worked for: Jabba the Hutt. If he was skulking around – and he _was_ skulking – that meant the bounty hunter was 'on the clock'.

There was one intriguing question that I needed answered: who was he after?

I followed the bounty hunter as he headed into a bar.

His behaviour told me that he was trying to avoid being seen by someone, but who...

* * *

I followed the bounty hunter as he headed into a bar.

His behaviour told me that he was trying to avoid being seen by someone, but who... I followed him into the cantina where he bought a drink and I watched as he took a seat in the back, behind the bar.

"What are we doing?" Dave asked, slightly confused.

Oops, I had forgotten about Dave, who had blindly followed me into the Cantina!

"Greedo – he's a grade one loser who _pretends_ to be a bounty hunter; he's not anywhere near _my league_! He's 'bounty hunting' at the moment and I want to know who he's after..."

"Okay – so what do we do?"

"Just follow my lead, apprentice bounty hunter!"

Dave chuckled and adjusted his scarf as I adjusted my own to cover the lower halves of our faces.

..._...

I headed over to the bar, bought a pair of daro-root beers, handed one to Dave and I then made a beeline for the booth where Greedo was sitting; he looked rather nervous. As I moved, I discretely primed my blaster – I trusted Greedo as much as I did Darth Vader!

"Mind if we join you?"

Greedo looked up and I could see instant recognition in his eyes.

"Private booth – sorry!"

I ignored him and pushed into the far corner of the booth where I could control the entrance, placing my drink on the table. Dave slid in beside me.

"Hit Girl, I want no trouble!" Greedo muttered.

"Neither do I and nor does my friend, Kick-Ass..."

"Kick-Ass?"

"Got a problem with that?" Dave growled.

Greedo raised his hands and shook his head. He could be a right wimp when given the opportunity – _I_ had bigger balls than he did!

..._...

"You got a contract, Greedo?" I asked conversationally.

"Maybe..."

"Anybody I know?"

"No, no, just scum."

"I know a lot of scum, including you – who?"

My question was answered when I saw Greedo's furtive look towards a newly arrived pair of customers walking up to the bar. One was over seven-foot tall and covered in fur, the other about six-foot or so tall and ruggedly handsome... Sort that dirty mind out Mindy, focus!

"Thank you – have a nice life!"

I nudged Dave and he quickly downed his drink before glaring at Greedo as he stood up. I followed, downing my own drink and headed straight for the Cantina exit, nodding at Solo and tipping my head towards Greedo who was trying to hide himself from Solo's vision.

..._...

"Somebody is in for a world of hurt," I commented as we reached sunlight and the street.

"Solo?"

"My money's on Greedo dying..."

* * *

 ** _The Sentinel_**

We returned to the ship to take stock of our freshly acquired supplies.

Kate had completed the inventory and as I ran my eyes down it, I was concerned. We had nowhere near what we needed for an extended stay in space. My biggest concern was our limited supply of Tibanna gas – the hyperdrive used it – the guns used it – even my blasters used it!

I sat down in the Lounge and began to break apart my blasters. Dave sat down to watch as I checked over the components.

"The Blastech DL-88 Heavy Blaster – border line illegal in most systems and entirely illegal in others! Has a maximum capacity of fifty shots before the power-pack needs replaced – the gas cartridge will last out about five-hundred shots. It'll also stun if necessary; the selector is on the left side behind the power-pack.

"On the right side is the power-pack release lever – the pack pops out... Just like that and slots back in quickly and easily – I have various capacities: twelve, twenty-five or fifty. The gas cartridge fits into the butt, under here and is inserted and removed with a twisting action… Like so. Go on – try it..."

I reassembled and passed over a blaster to Dave to experiment with. He deftly removed the power-pack and the gas cartridge with ease before reinstalling both correctly.

"Has a good weight to it," Dave commented.

"Gets a bit heavy at times!"

"Where did you get them – I've never seen that model before..."

"I've only known you a few days; I need to keep _some_ secrets... The blaster has some other tricks too – but I'll save them for another time."

* * *

I hefted the blaster in my hand – it had some weight to it and Mindy carried two!

They were obviously custom and an exact match. The grip was curved and inlaid with what seemed to be some type of wood. The curved trigger was enclosed by a trigger guard. Above that, was the cylindrical power-pack which would pop out to the left side of the weapon.

At the rear, was the safety. In front of the power-pack, but below the barrel, was the main firing coil with its cooling heatsink and vents. Towards the end of the barrel was the final stage collimator and the cone-shaped flash-cone or flash suppressor.

The weapon was comfortable to hold and the sights were good.

* * *

 ** _The following afternoon_**

I needed credits and I needed Tibanna gas.

One way to get the Tibanna gas, was to buy it – legally. That required credits – a _lot_ of credits! To get the credits, I needed a job – a job that paid. Tibanna gas could be obtained from Cloud City in the Bespin system. It would take us a little under five days to travel from Tatooine to Bespin, however, we would need a substantial amount of credits _before_ we visited – no credit would be available!

It was time to teach Kick-Ass how to be a bounty hunter.

..._...

"The Bounty Hunters Guild has been around for hundreds, if not thousands, of years. I'm a member of the Guild, so I have to follow certain rules, or I get myself kicked out. The benefit of being a member is that we get notified of potential bounties way before they get advertised. That gives us the edge, plus Guild members can get higher rates.

"Within the Guild, there are Houses. We all aspire to join House Salaktori, which is for elite bounty hunters only – got some ways to go till I get there! For now, I'm a member of House Ragnar – we specialise in unorthodox methods..."

"Such as...?" Dave enquired.

"You'll find out as we go... For now, lesson one in 'Bounty Hunters', is over."

* * *

What was I getting myself involved in?

A bounty hunter? A Jedi? My mind was reeling with way too much information and not much of it good. It seemed that everything about my current life could get me killed. Bounty hunters were killed on a regular basis and there was a standing order for all Jedi to be killed on sight. I was throwing everything in with a thirteen-year-old girl who seemed almost a child, but I had to admit that she possessed both skills and galaxy-smarts. She was still alive after wandering the galaxy alone. I had witnessed her protect and handle herself. She saw danger and sought to avoid it if possible. Maybe I would keep living just that little bit longer.

Hell, I had almost died on Coruscant, but she had saved me. We had both embarked on a steep learning curve on the path to becoming Jedi. So, what did that make us? Padawans? Didn't Padawans have a Master? We had no master. We were both force-sensitive, but neither of us knew how to control our new-found abilities.

* * *

What was I getting myself involved in?

My mind was in turmoil. A strong part of me said to go back to being a bounty hunter and _nothing else_... I barely knew the boy, but I was about to follow his weird dream literally across the damn galaxy. I was going to expend thousands of credits on his dream – only, it was not just his dream; it was mine too.

I wanted to find out more about how I had become what I was turning into and Dave could help me with that – we were both the same. The all mysterious force had drawn us together...

..._...

I made my way through to the cockpit and confirmed that all was ready for launch. It was time to begin the search for our destiny, whatever that may behold for us both. For now, our destiny was on that remote planet and that remote planet was also on the other side of the galaxy, so for now I could concentrate on being a bounty hunter and building up my stock of credits so that we could actually get there.

"So," Dave enquired as he walked into the cockpit. "Where are we headed, oh mysterious Hit Girl?"

I grinned.

"Nar Shaddaa – the largest moon of Nal Hutta. We call it Little Coruscant; there is business to be made from that steaming cess pit – assuming we survive..."

"Can't wait!" Dave replied.

"We'll be cooped up together for eight days..."

"I can cope if you can... we got enough fuel and supplies for that long a trip?"

"Kind of..." I replied uneasily. "Kate'll just have to eat less..."

"Funny!" Kate commented. "The ship is sealed, the hyperdrive and ion drives are primed."

"Okay – bringing the repuslorlift engines to idle..."

The deck plates vibrated as the core of the _Sentinel_ came to life.

"Navicomputer is set for Rishi..."

"An abandoned Clone War outpost about two days from here."

"Bit cryptic..."

"A girl needs to keep _some_ secrets."

..._...

The Sentinel lifted smoothly off the ground and rose upwards out of the docking bay. I felt four satisfying thumps as the landing struts locked into place... I gave the control panel a fist and the fifth landing strut locked into place a few seconds later. We angled upwards slightly and accelerated into the sky. A few moments later we broke out into the blackness of space and after a few seconds, the Sentinel tipped over to starboard, took up the correct course and the cockpit windows filled with streaks of white light as we accelerated to light-speed and on into the blue tunnel of hyperspace.


	7. Rishi Station

**_THE SENTINEL_**

The girl was _always_ hungry!

Dave could not figure out where the hell she put all the food. There was not an ounce of fat on her slim frame and not much fat in her chest, either, for that matter. Dave assumed that her thighs were all muscle, but he decided not to test out his theory. Hyperspace was inherently boring – you just streaked across the galaxy with not much to actually look at as you went. However, so many things could go wrong in hyperspace: you could pass through a star, a planet, or even come out inside an asteroid field. Dave just had to trust in Kate's calculations and the navigational computer systems within the _SENTINEL_. Mind you, considering how often the _SENTINEL_ broke down, Dave was not all that confident of arriving in one piece at wherever they were headed for.

"Where, are we going again?" Dave asked Mindy as she shovelled Corellian potato sticks into her mouth.

"Rishi Station," Mindy replied. "Back during the Clone Wars, it was a Republic outpost. It's located on the Rishi moon in the system of the same name. As I understand it, some clone troopers blew it way the hell up during an attack on Kamino – at least that's what Rex told me."

..._...

The two of them spent an inordinate amount of time talking and eating.

Mindy liked to talk, and Dave got the impression that having been alone, she had not had all that many chances to talk, what with only Kate for company. The conversations generally steered around our ultimate objective and centred on fun things, such as verbally abusing Darth Vader, the Emperor, and anything vaguely related to the Empire. Mindy was a good, but seemingly impatient, teacher and as such she showed Dave some of the _SENTINEL's_ key systems and how they operated.

She was a very good teacher and it surprised Dave that she put up with his inexhaustible questions and sometimes total ignorance.

..._...

He was learning – Mindy was pleased to see that.

If he wanted to be part of her crew, then he would have to be able to lend a hand; the _SENTINEL_ tended to have one or two – alright, a few . . . actually quite a lot of – permanent teething problems, and that meant learning the _SENTINEL_ from end to end. The vessel was not huge, so Mindy deemed it to be a relatively easy task. As for other activities to pass the time on the long voyage in hyperspace, neither of them was all that eager to try any lightsaber sparring – Dave quite rightly pointed out that they might end up killing each other accidentally. They were also more than a little edgy about their apparently developing control over the Force. Mindy's thirteen-year-old body was doing enough developing of its own and as such, she had enough to cope with, without metaphysical forces to handle on top of expanding hips, developing breasts, hair growth, and all the rest.

On that subject – not the metaphysical one – Mindy began to realise that, quit unwittingly, she had been openly flirting with Dave. She had felt totally mortified when she finally realised what she had been, and was still, doing. Dave did not seem to mind – mind you, she was not entirely sure that he had really noticed. Although, the spur of the moment, 'totally accidental', drop of the towel had really freaked Mindy out – one word had rung through her mind immediately after the event: 'why?' – she really had to learn to control her urges.

Only, she had a distinct feeling that her pubescent body was more in control of her, than _she_ was . . . as far as Dave was concerned, at least.

..._...

Dave was not certain if Mindy realised it or not, but she was flirting . . . in quite a major way to be honest.

It had taken Dave a while to notice – which in itself was a surprise to him as he was never normally shy about running his eager eyes over any passing female; human or otherwise. Nevertheless, it was the _apparently_ 'accidental' full-frontal flash that had convinced the teenager that Mindy was flirting – she had looked mortified, admittedly, so Dave had assumed that she had not exactly planned the event and that it was a total spur of the moment thing; as a result, he had never seen her move so fast! Mind you, it had not been her bright red face that Dave had been looking at – her breasts had attracted his attention first. They were not all that big, but they suited her body well and Dave assumed that they would grow over time. Before she had fled, though, he had caught sight of a discrete patch of dark hair between her legs. Again, it was not much, but it demonstrated that she was more of a young woman than a young girl.

Mindy had not spoken about the incident, so neither had Dave.

..._...

The time the two youngsters spent together helped them to get to know each other better.

They could both foresee a time when they would need to be there for each other, either in combat or maybe somewhere else. . . they had no idea what lay before them, but Mindy was grateful to have a companion along for the ride. A part of Mindy – her rampant loins, apparently – wanted her to push forward in a singularly particular way. Push forward? A relationship? She had only known him a few days and now her rampant loins wanted to – ewww! He was a nice guy, to be sure, but what did she actually know about guys? She knew as much about guys, as Rancors knew about civility. She was a bounty hunter; did she really want distractions? Apparently, it seemed, she needed those distractions. They both had a lot in common. She and Dave were what? Kindred spirits? Before she could commit to a relationship, she needed to know a lot more about the boy.

Much more.

* * *

 ** _The following morning_**

"Morning, Mindy."

"Morning, Dave."

"No 'morning' for me – typical humans!" Kate muttered as he deposited their breakfast.

"Got out the wrong side of the oil bath, this morning, Kate?" Mindy chuckled.

Kate did not respond. Dave enjoyed the verbal sparring matches between Kate and Mindy. He knew that the droid was one-hundred-percent loyal to Mindy, but he was more than a little surprised that Kate put up with the often-offensive rebukes. Kate seemed to have taken to Dave as well, as the droid would often produce food and drink without being asked. There were times that Kate behaved like a sudo-parent to the pair of youngsters. It was very obvious that Mindy could not run the _SENTINEL_ alone and the droid's assistance was critical to Mindy's – and now Dave's – survival. They both ate breakfast in peace, barely talking but enjoying one another's company. Mindy was concentrating on her food with occasional glances at Dave. Dave caught the glances and he saw Mindy's cheeks turn pinker each time.

Was Mindy wearing a tighter top?

..._...

After breakfast, the pair headed into the cockpit.

From there, they watched the cloudy interior of the hyperspace tunnel as they shot across their section of the galaxy. The constantly changing blueness was admittedly pretty awesome to watch as they headed for the brightest point where the tunnel appeared to come together thousands of miles ahead.

"All looks good here," Mindy said as she finished checking the controls.

They both left the cockpit and were just passing Mindy's cabin when suddenly, they both lost their footing, and each crashed into the forward bulkhead as the _SENTINEL_ vibrated badly before all the lights went out.

"We've dropped out of hyperspace, Mistress Mindy," Kate pointed out unnecessarily.

"Where are the kriffing emergency lights?" Mindy complained as she fell over something with a crash.

The emergency lights came on a few moments later. Mindy was sitting on the deck plates looking very annoyed, but she quickly scrambled to her feet and after a quick sniff of the air, she yanked up a deck plate and dived into the small space beneath. After a few moments, her head appeared.

"We need to fix this – now!"

Dave shuffled forwards, unsure of what he could do to help. Kate nudged a large tool bag with his foot and Dave pulled it over to the gaping hole.

"Grab me a Harris Wrench. . ."

"This?"

Mindy grabbed the offered wrench. A minute later she popped up out of the engine bay.

"I need the bundon tape . . . hurry. Not that one . . . no . . . no . . . that one . . . no . . . no . . . the one I'm pointing to . . . _no_!"

Kate gently kicked a roll of tape towards Dave. Dave dutifully passed it to the irate Mindy who vanished from sight again. After a few moments of pounding and some foul language, the emergency lights went out.

"Kriff!"

Another few moments of pounding and some more foul language, and there was a loud humming sound and the main lights came back on. There was a shuddering and then the ageing YT-2400 accelerated into hyperspace.

"We've entered hyperspace, Mistress Mindy," Kate pointed out unnecessarily.

"Thank you, Kate."

"You're welcome, Mistress Mindy."

"Maybe a hand out of here, Kate?"

"I better go check for any other damage," Kate replied as he vanished around a corner.

"Mindy?"

Mindy looked up to see Dave reaching a hand down for her. With a grin, she reached up and seized the hand. Then she was surprised to find how strong Dave was as he effortlessly pulled her to his level. Her feet barely touched the deck before Dave let her down. For a moment, Mindy did not let go of Dave's hand but then she realised what she was doing, and she yanked her hand away like she had just been burned.

"Err – I need to check the . . . thingy in the err, cockpit."

..._...

That afternoon, for a change, the _SENTINEL_ dropped out of hyperspace by command.

The moon which grew in the windows of the cockpit had a blue hue and appeared sinister – at least Dave thought so.

"Okay – we should be there very soon. Time to get changed," Mindy said as she punched some buttons before leaving the cockpit.

They each pulled on their armour – not an easy task but it was getting easier – leaving the helmets off to one side.

* * *

 ** _Rishi Moon_**

As _SENTINEL_ entered the moon's atmosphere, Dave noticed the wreckage of a large facility.

It looked to have been destroyed years before. It had to have been the destroyed Republic outpost. The landing platform was still partially intact, and Dave noticed that Mindy was heading in that direction. Not only that, there was already a large ship on the platform. Mindy eased the _SENTINEL_ down with only feet between the cockpit on its outrigger and the starboard hull of the other ship.

Mindy disengaged the engines and with a pronounced wine the repuslorlift engines wound down.

..._...

Kate was at the ramp which was lowered ready for Dave and Mindy to disembark.

Mindy double-checked her blasters before she headed down onto the moon. Dave followed close behind.

"What ship is that?" Dave asked as he looked up at the vessel which had obviously seen many battles.

The modified VCX-100 light freighter was an imposing design with port and starboard docking rings. There were also guns fitted into a nose turret and a dorsal turret. Dave had observed a VCX-series auxiliary starfighter docked on the spine of the vessel and providing an aft turret of sorts. Overall, Dave thought that the vessel was intimidating.

"That would be the _Ghost_ ," Mindy explained.

At the front of the _GHOST_ , a ramp was in the lowered position beneath the cockpit. Dave and Mindy approached the base of the ramp. Looking upwards, they could see five people coming down the ramp, along with a droid. Three of the people were Human. There was a Twi'lek and another creature that Dave did not recognise. A young female with short hair, which was green and blue, stepped forwards and she held out her hand to Mindy in welcome.

"Mindy!"

"Good to see you, Sabine."

"Dave, please meet the crew of the _Ghost_. Kanan, Hera, Ezra, Zeb, Sabine, and Chopper. All of you, this is Dave."

"Boyfriend?" Sabine asked with a glint in her eye.

"No!" Mindy exclaimed, and everybody laughed.


End file.
